Portable wireless communication devices, such as cell phones, PDAs, and the like, have become increasingly more powerful with a growing number of features. In particular, portable wireless communication devices are becoming more complex with multiple modes of interacting with other devices. For example, many portable wireless communication devices currently may operate as a communications device and as data transfer device.
With the advances in information storage technology, portable wireless communication devices may also operate in a mass storage mode, wherein the portable wireless communication device may view an external device as a memory storage area, or the external device may view the portable wireless communication device as a memory storage device.
In addition, with the convergence of multi-media capabilities into portable wireless communication devices, portable wireless communication devices may use external devices as a media player, or may themselves be used by external devices as media players. Moreover, when augmented by the integration of digital rights management capabilities, portable wireless communication devices may operate in a digital rights management mode, wherein the portable wireless communication device may be used to securely play, store, or transfer media content such as digital music, digital video, and other protected media, as well as protected electronic files and software applications.
Accordingly, support for three or more varying modes of operation are becoming a necessity for many portable wireless communication devices. For example, three typical modes are: communications (COM) mode, mass storage (MS) mode, and digital rights management (DRM) mode.
In response to the greater number of operating modes available, portable wireless communication devices often must also be able to interface with a plurality of external devices.
One technique for interfacing with a plurality of external devices is for the portable wireless communication device to provide a plurality of interfaces wherein a user may plug an external device into an interface dedicated to a particular mode of operation. For example, a portable wireless communication device may use a proprietary interface for instances of being used in communications mode, and use a universal interface, such as a USB port, for instances of being used in digital rights management mode. However, as the number of modes of operation increase, the increasing the number of physical interfaces undesirably detracts from a device's ability to retain a compact form facto and increases costs.
Another technique is to use a single universal hardware interface for multiple operation methods. However, this technique would still require the user to configure the portable wireless communication device to operate in a particular mode, according to which external device it is coupled to, leading to complexity of operation and an unsatisfactory user experience.
Accordingly, there exists a strong need in the art for a system and method for peripheral device detection on a mobile handset serial port which addresses the above deficiencies.